Norman Reedus Once Lost a Part Because He Wasn't 'Good-Looking' Enough ... For Reals

Fans of The Walking Dead who are counting down the hours to tomorrow's mid-season premiere might be shocked to learn that Norman Reedus (aka Daryl Dixon) was once told to act "more good-looking" in an audition -- but that's apparently what happened to the 47-year-old when he was a young, struggling actor!

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Sure, Reedus is considered a heartthrob now (they don't make "Mrs. Daryl Dixon" T-shirts for nothin'), but that ruggedly handsome face surprisingly didn't immediately catapult the former model to stardom in quite the way you might have thought. In the new edition of Men's Fitness, the world's hottest zombie-hunter revealed that one of his earliest attempts to break into the biz found his sex appeal called into question.

"I remember in one of my earliest auditions, the casting director goes, 'Can you do that a little more good-looking next time? Like the blond guy on Lost,'" said Reedus. "And I was like, 'What the f--k is that?' I … looked up the guy and knew there was no f--king way I was going to get that job. There’s no way I could be that good-looking."

Um, seriously?! The casting director was apparently talking about Josh Holloway, who, while certainly attractive, isn't somebody I'd care to watch take out a swarm of walkers with a crossbow. I mean, this is Holloway:

Okay, he ain't half bad to look at, and, like Reedus (and all the other Walking Dead actors), he can obviously rock a forehead gash. But compared to THIS guy?

Come on! Daryl Dixon even looks HAWT gnawing away at a charred rattlesnake! No. Contest. Clearly that casting director should've gone with Reedus! Except, who knows -- maybe then Reedus wouldn't have ended up on The Walking Dead, and that would have been a tragic loss for television.

The important thing, of course, is that he did make it to TWD, and that there are a whole bunch of brand-new episodes starting tomorrow. And, from what I've heard, this is going to be a very Daryl-centric season.